Charlie Crist tells National Review Online that a conversation with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) helped to convince him to run for U.S. Senate as an independent. “[Lieberman] told me that [going independent] is the most liberating thing,” Crist says. “He was right. I’m much happier now, to be perfectly candid.”
Crist tells us that he plans to run a “positive campaign” against his two main opponents, Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek. “I’ll be a happy warrior,” he promises. But will he try to tie Rubio to the Republican Party of Florida’s financial troubles, which are currently under federal scrutiny? “That investigation is in the hands of others, as it should be,” he says. “That’s not my focus.”
Crist was also asked, does he agree with Arizona’s new law? “What Arizona did is wrong,” Crist says. “I’m the grandson of a Greek immigrant. The notion that you pull over ‘suspect’ people and demand their papers is not American. That’s strange. That’s not what America is supposed to be about. What we need to do is secure the border, agree to not have amnesty, and create a pathway to citizenship that is earned. President Bush, to hiscredit, fought for that, as did former senator Mel Martinez.”
